Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Played Lately: World of Warcraft

Since the new guild I joined was on the Alliance, I knew that I would be putting my blood elves on the back burner for a while. That is honestly okay because I've enjoyed bringing my original character out of mothballs. Also, I just prefer the Alliance more. The Horde (especially the Forsaken) still feel like the bad guys, no matter how you dress it up.

The only issue I had that since I didn't play her that much in the last couple years, my paladin only got to level 73. That would have to be rectified. I went on a questing sprint through Northrend, trying to reach 80 before the expansion. Last night, with only three hours to spare, I made it. I'm kind of shocked myself. It helps that Blizzard pushed the leveling curve between level 70 and 80 down by twenty percent.

So you might be asking how I spend my first minutes in the new expansion? Did I run off to Vashj'ir or Mount Hyjal to explore the new content? Did I join the masses and roll a new worgen or goblin? None of the above actually.

Instead I ran off for a meeting with Harrison Jones, the Archaeology trainer in Stormwind. Ever since the expansion was launched, I've been interested in this new profession. And even after The Path of the Titans was removed, I wanted to see what had become of Archaeology.

So far, I'm enjoying myself. The new dig sites show up right on your world map. You just ride (or fly!) up to the sight and start surveying the area. It is a little maddening when the artifact is right along the edge of the dig site because it make triangulation more difficult, but I didn't have to give up on any of the sites. In fact, I was pretty proficient at hitting the right spot with a minimum of surveys.

That went on for a couple hours. I flew all around the Eastern Kingdoms, hitting every dig site I could find, until I hit 75 in my Archaeology skill. No acheivement for that (you need 150 for the first) but I needed to go train anyway and call it a night. I ended up completely three artifacts (all gray quality) which I sold to the Stormwind innkeeper in trade for logging for the night.

Now that the rush has passed, I'll be heading out to Hyjal today. But you know I'll be back to digging soon. I think I'm hooked.

4 comments:

No matter how many Horde characters I'll end up making, I'll always have a soft spot for the Alliance. Glad you'll be sticking around for a while, I hope the experience in the new guild has been treating you well!

I think I'm going to go train Archaeology later today too. I promised my husband I won't do anything that has to do with "progression" without him while he's away at work, but I think professions will be okay. I'm really interested in this new secondary profession as well, since in real life I almost became an actual archaeologist :P Then I spent that summer on a dig in Spain and realized it wasn't as glamorous as I thought. I'm sure archaeology in the game will blow my mind though, it sounds like a heck of a lot of fun already!

If the past expansions are any indication, you should probably wait for another week or so (if you can) before you head over to the newbie zones. Launch Day, and 2-3 days after launch day are kind of nuts.